Brighton & Hove City Council: New Homes for Neighbourhoods

The competition is being run within the council’s New Homes for Neighbourhoods Programme, to bring forward much needed new homes on council housing land. Included in the programme are former garage and car parking sites on council housing land at Hinton Close, Rotherfield Crescent and Natal Road, which are in need of regeneration. A small council owned commercial parking site in Frederick Street within the North Laine area has also been included to add an additional urban dimension to the design competition.

The competition is open to fully qualified architects who are registered to practice in the UK and could present an ideal opportunity for Small to Medium Sized Enterprises (SME’s) generally, as well as practices based in the Brighton and Hove area, to showcase their design skills.

The competition will be organised over three phases, with the initial phase involving submission of a concise Pre-Qualification Questionnaire. The design phase of the competition will initially require eligible participants to select and submit anonymous proposals for two of the four sites. Up to 20 concept designs (up to five per site) will be long-listed for public consultation, from which a Judging Panel will identify a preferred scheme for each site for further development during the second phase of the competition.

The four short-listed teams (one per site) will be invited to develop their design ideas, to demonstrate the viability of the proposals and their ability to assemble a team to deliver the scheme. Each short-listed team will receive an honorarium of £5,000 (+VAT) which will be paid following submission and presentation of Phase 2 design proposals at final interview. Following the interviews, the Judging Panel will have the option of recommending that each team is then initially appointed to take their respective scheme to planning.

The design competition is a pilot project, intended to generate design ideas for the delivery of social rented housing on the smaller Council owned sites within the Programme. The competition is seeking proposals for innovative housing solutions for the four competition sites.

The proposals should demonstrate sensitivity to context and local distinctiveness within their design responses. Whilst the proposals should be tailored to the constraints of the individual sites, the Council will be interested to see approaches and typologies that could potentially be applicable or adapted for use on other sites.

The proposals should seek to maximise the potential and opportunities of the respective sites, whilst being mindful of the constraints - particularly with respect to neighbouring properties and issues of over-looking etc.

The proposals should seek to embrace sustainable design principles, and be capable of future adaptation in response to changing demand and/or the needs of the tenants. The Council currently delivers its social rental housing to Code for Sustainable Homes Level 4. The proposals should demonstrate that affordable housing of high design quality can be achieved within the respective cost envelope for each site. The proposals will need to demonstrate value for money.

As a guide, the construction cost of each residential unit should be in the region of £150,000 or £1,700 per sq m.

The proposals should meet the minimum space standards outlined in the Council's Affordable Housing Brief.

The proposals should be practical, with an emphasis on manageable life-time costs and the performance/maintenance of all proposed materials and finishes within Brighton & Hove's seaside environment.